President Marcos on 2024 budget: Secret fund issue already settled

TOKYO — As he prepares to sign the P5.768-trillion budget program tomorrow, President Marcos yesterday declared as a “settled issue” the controversy over the aborted inclusion of P650-million confidential funds in the 2024 budgets of the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte and the education department which she heads.

Speaking to reporters who covered his visit here, Marcos said he was “fairly comfortable” with the way the budget has turned out, even as he acknowledged that “a little work” has to be done to make sure that the items in the spending plan would be funded. 

“Yes, I think we are scheduled for Wednesday,” the President said.

“That was actually the initiative of the Vice President,” he said when asked about the confidential fund issue that observers said had soured his relationship with Duterte and her supporters.

“I’m not actually talking about the confidential funds and to not insist that they have such confidential funds. So I think as far as I’m concerned, it is a settled issue,” he pointed out.

Speaker Martin Romualdez also said the President is set to sign the budget program tomorrow.

“The budget I think...very, very closely follows what our original NEP (National Expenditure Program) was... There is still a gap, a differential between the appropriated funds and the funds we have collected thus far. There is a certain amount that we have extra and we have to collect,” he added.

Congress has realigned the combined P650-million confidential funds of the OVP and the DepEd, fueling rumors that there is a rift between Duterte and some allies of Marcos.

Duterte, who ran alongside Marcos in the Uniteam ticket during the 2022 elections, has withdrawn her request for the funds. The secret funds were instead allocated to agencies dealing with security threats in the South China Sea.

While the realignment increased the funding for efforts to secure the Philippines’ maritime interests, Marcos admitted that the Philippines’ defense spending remains incomparable with that of China, which is claiming practically the entire strategic waterway.

“Even if we go up to the desired level of spending on defense of up to two percent of GDP (gross domestic product), we